A short discussion of redistricting and an overview of each State Senate primary race.
It may be the middle of summer, but there is a lot going on in Massachusetts state legislature campaigns. This post spends some time looking at redistricting, specifically the new majority minority state senate districts, and then at each of the contested state senate primaries.
The Massachusetts State Senate lines have been redrawn by the legislature after the 2020 Census as required by the constitution. Redistricting established two new majority minority districts.
The First Essex State Senate District—one of the new majority districts—contains all of Lawrence, all of Methuen, and approximately 5 precincts of Haverhill (give or take a few census blocks). The previous lines of the district (the dotted line in the map below) did not include Lawrence and instead included a large number of largely white communities. The new lines result in a voting age population that is 36% White, 56% Hispanic, 10% Black, and 3% Asian. The First Essex incumbent, Diana DiZoglio (D—Methuen), is running for Auditor, leaving an open race for a competitive field of candidates from Lawrence and Methuen (see the First Essex primary overview below).
Figure 1: First Essex State Senate District
The other newly created majority minority is the Middlesex and Suffolk District with incumbent Sal DiDomenico (D—Everett). Redistricting has added diverse sections of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge, while removing parts of Boston’s West End, Allston, and Brighton neighborhoods. The district ends up with a demographic mix of 46% White, 24% Hispanic, 12% Black, and 15% Asian. DiDomenico does not have primary or general election challenger.
Figure 2: Middlesex and Suffolk State Senate District
The other majority minority State Senate districts are the Springfield-based Hampden district of Adam Gomez (D—Springfield), the Boston-based Second Suffolk district of Sonia Change-Diaz (D—Boston) who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Governor, and the Second Plymouth and Norfolk district with incumbent Senator Michael Brady (D—Brockton).
The full State Senate map is given here with dashed lines for previous State Senate district lines and some demographics (partisan lean, etc.).